Ch.329What? There’s this much of a difference?

Going to a gang hideout in a suit was already reckless.

Judging by the screams, it seemed he had even used weapons.

‘Normally he would have just gotten scared at the entrance and run away!’

I don’t know what suddenly got into him.

But I’m sure the screams came from not being able to properly control the weapon’s recoil.

During my MIT days, I worked on various research projects.

I wrote several papers and earned a lot of scholarship money from them.

People asked what we were going to do with the money.

Without saying a word, we poured all of it into creating an iron suit.

Of course, it was a secret from everyone except Harley and me.

Why would we tell anyone we were developing an armored suit in the garage?

Anyway, the suit we created.

It turned out quite different from what we had envisioned.

-Wait a minute… how did Mr. Stark make this?

-He hammered some iron and created Mark 1, but we made something worse?

-The arc reactor… that’s the problem, there’s too little information about it.

-I think we should focus on enhancing impact with a pile bunker system

-This is just Iron Fist then….

-Repulsor beams are out of the question for now, we’ll have to be satisfied with installing guns.

-Should we make it capable of firing a bazooka round just in case?

Free aerial movement was reduced to limited gliding.

Flashy actions using repulsor beams were compromised by mimicking War Machine’s armaments.

That’s why we sealed it.

When using weapons installed inside the suit.

The strain would be directly transmitted to the body.

No matter how many shock absorbers we put in.

The bone-rattling impact would obviously be dangerous to the human body.

But now he was using it.

From the sound of it, he seemed to have fired the bazooka.

‘Of course bearing the recoil of an anti-tank weapon with your body would be painful!’

No matter how much we reduced it.

How good could the technology of a prototype suit really be?

Tap-tap-tap!

My footsteps naturally quickened.

While wondering what running technique would let me move faster,

my body had already arrived at the gang hideout’s entrance in the blink of an eye.

“Holy shit.”

The first thing I saw was a dented metal door.

He really just barged in without warning.

Several gang members had collapsed unconscious from the impact behind the metal door.

He must have charged straight in without giving them time to respond.

There weren’t any bullet marks near the entrance.

‘He subdued them all.’

Small buttons attached to the gang members’ bodies.

Shock buttons we had created after months of late-night brainstorming.

‘I can’t shout to find him.’

I wanted to call out for Harley immediately,

but I couldn’t do something as stupid as shouting a friend’s real name in an enemy hideout.

Even I had my face hidden behind a mask.

The best course of action at this point was:

“Just run around and look for him.”

There was nothing else I could do but search physically.

I couldn’t call the police either.

If it became known that we were developing an armored suit in our garage,

we would certainly be called upon by the government.

That worst-case scenario had to be avoided at all costs.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

Since this was just a factory illegally converted into a hideout,

Hate Trip’s base had a very simple structure.

A factory layout divided into two floors with high ceilings.

In places like this, the boss is usually in a corner on the second floor.

I immediately ran up the stairs and,

as if on cue,

BOOM!

With a second loud explosion.

“AAAAARGH!”

Harley’s scream was heard again.

The location was exactly where I expected the boss to be.

I rushed there without hesitation,

and the first thing I saw was:

“P-please spare me! I’m begging you!”

The Hate Trip boss lying flat on the ground begging me for his life, and,

“…I can’t control it! Using multiple weapons simultaneously must have overloaded the circuits!”

Ratatatatatatata!

Harley calmly analyzing the situation while spraying bullets into the air.

Fortunately or unfortunately, due to our limited budget for ammunition,

Click-click-click-click.

The bullets were quickly depleted.

“Any solution?”

“I’m in a really panicked state, so my brainwaves are unstable… the suit is going haywire! I need to pass out! That should stabilize it!”

“You crazy bastards! What the hell is going on?! Forget that and save me, I said!”

Ignoring the Hate Trip boss’s words,

I looked around for something to subdue Harley.

‘Why did we have to make something like an automatic defense system.’

An AI program that unconditionally responds to

any target identified as an enemy within a certain range.

Because of that, I couldn’t approach carelessly.

Indeed.

Beep-beep-beep!

Click.

Click.

Recognizing that it was out of ammo, the suit automatically checked for nearby ammunition.

As soon as it identified something compatible with the current weapon, it continued reloading.

“…Duck!”

“I know!”

Ratatatatatatata.

Another shower of bullets followed.

“AAAAH! Save me! Please spare me! Come on, selling drugs isn’t a capital offense! Just send me to prison, please spare my life!”

The Hate Trip boss screaming like a little girl, and,

“AAAAARGH!”

Harley suffering burns through the gun-mounted parts

because the heated barrel couldn’t cool down properly.

‘A solution. There must be a solution somewhere.’

I racked my brain.

At this rate, everyone would die.

Sure, he was just spraying bullets now,

but who knew when that gun barrel might start moving normally.

‘I’ll tackle him first.’

I immediately grabbed an intact table nearby.

“Shoot this instead!”

I threw it toward Harley,

Ratatatatatatata!

While the gun barrel turned toward the table, I threw myself at Harley.

My goal was to push Harley out the second-floor window.

A fall from the second floor wouldn’t kill someone in a suit,

and I could use that as a cushion to endure—a perfect plan.

“AAAAAAAH! Save me!”

“Would you shut up!”

Since this was the first time the suit had been operating for so long,

naturally, it didn’t react immediately to my approach,

CRASH!

Harley and I broke through the window and fell from the second floor.

THUD!

A rough landing sound.

Thanks to the various shock absorbers in the suit,

“I’m fine.”

I wasn’t badly hurt,

and Harley had perfectly passed out as calculated.

“…Shit.”

After cursing briefly,

Instead of quickly getting up to help Harley,

I rapidly climbed back to the second floor.

“W-what? Why, why are you back?!”

“To finish the job.”

The reason was for clean follow-up.

I would have to call the police after leaving the scene,

and it would be troublesome if this guy was still conscious.

WHACK!

After precisely hitting his jaw to knock him out,

I went back down to the first floor and continued the hard work of taking care of Harley.

At the same time,

“Nothing’s easier than breaching security that’s been breached once before, right?”

“I told you geniuses change the world. Breaking Stark’s security has created a shortcut for us.”

“We’re going to build it too, a new suit….”

“Why help people when you have this kind of power? You could rule over them instead.”

Past events were creating new butterfly effects.

+++++

WHOOSH!

The immersed world shattered.

‘…So the setting is that because Iron Core hacked Stark’s technology, it’s become easier for civilians to develop suits?’

I roughly predicted how Arc Born’s story would continue.

Two young men wanting to carry on Stark’s legacy versus

villains who just want to take the technology and rule over people with suits.

To establish such a foundation already in the second revision.

Even though they had to write a completely new story from scratch.

I thought they had built quite a solid framework.

‘The story’s not bad?’

No, it wasn’t just “not bad”—it was good.

It seemed like sufficient build-up to establish the narrative of Arc Born that was just beginning,

and it would probably act as convincing material for audiences.

If they continue revising like this,

it really seemed like they could quickly reach S+ grade.

“What do you think? Is this story good?”

“Yes. I like it! Instead of becoming super strong right away, there’s a gradual progression that feels good. It has a familiar feel to it.”

“Right, that’s the trend these days. And Donghu, we already have a separate strong image prepared for you.”

“Strong image?”

“Oh, Warner Brothers contacted us. They said the first draft of Murciélago 2 is almost ready.”

“Ah.”

So I’ll be filming both Arc Born and Murciélago 2 simultaneously?

To continue shooting two major blockbuster films at the same time,

both as the lead actor.

‘I guess I’ll basically be living in Hollywood until the middle of next year?’

It’s going to get busy again.

Thinking this, I leaned back on the sofa.

‘I want to hang out with Seohyun, and see Kangsik and Mincheol after so long too.’

But there’s no time, no time at all.

+++++

At the same time Kim Donghu was worrying about his tight schedule,

Hollywood actors were wearing serious expressions due to completely different concerns.

-“So you’re saying Donghu Kim is involved in the casting?”

-“That’s right. That’s how it’s set up, and Donghu Kim is involved in everything from all audition videos… to freestyle acting.”

In a recent interview Melvin gave,

it stated that Kim Donghu would be directly involved in Arc Born’s casting.

That Kim Donghu will evaluate the acting?

How high should the standard be set?

It’s fine to stand next to him, but

he’ll strictly judge qualifications too?

“…So it’s true that it’s 100% audition-based.”

There wasn’t even any way to get into the movie through recommendations.

From beginning to end, it was purely 100% based on skill.

Plus, it was explicitly stated that looks would be considered too.

Of course, some actors nitpicked this and said things like,

“Are you discriminating against unattractive female leads?”

and some articles maliciously criticized this,

But it all got buried.

The public was getting tired of political correctness.

Anyway, after about another month,

finally,

“…Is it today?”

The day of the public Arc Born audition with Kim Donghu approached,

“Holy shit.”

The actors who came to the audition were shocked looking at the people around them.

All the rumored high-value actors had gathered in one place,

Mumble-mumble-mumble.

They were memorizing their scripts.

Seeing this,

‘So they’re even swallowing their pride to act with Kim Donghu?’

The expressions of the Iron Core production team who had snuck in froze.

They knew from the start that there wouldn’t be much competition, but,

Is the difference this extreme?